Review by Keith Flynn
That's The Way It Is and I’m 10,000 Years Old - Elvis Country were two of the most artistic albums in Elvis' career. What makes them special, is a true concept behind the selection of the songs. Unfortunately, Love Letters From Elvis could not live up to this high standard, since it was a strange mixture of songs, that could not make it on the That's The Way It Is and Elvis Country releases in the first place, for reasons of available time, quality or strategy. However it is, and does deserve to be, a popular album in its own right. The concept of eleven love-letters doesn't really fit to these songs though, but still this album is one of the most loved among Elvis fans.
These three albums certainly belong together, and FTD have once again proved its love for Elvis Presley, by releasing all three albums within the same year.
The sound quality on the original album is very similar to FTD’s That's The Way It Is release, although this time it it has been mastered by Lene Reidel and Vic Anesini, rather than Jean-Marc Juilland. Reidel normally gets a lot of flak from fans over her mastering skills, but here everything sounds just great.
The highlights of the 1970 studio session outtakes have been released on FTD’s The Nashville Marathon, A Hundred Years From Now - Essential Elvis Volume 4, the Today, Tomorrow And Forever box-set and the Platinum - A Life In Music box-set, but now all previously released versions have been newly remixed.
But it's really a question of personal taste, since the new mixes add more echo to Elvis' voice and moved some instruments to the left or right side, so you can hear them more clearly.
The overall stereo feeling has been improved. Furthermore the careful listener will find out that previous released outtakes had been edited in their initial release, correcting some “motherfucker” or singing mistakes. Take a listen to Take 1 of ‘I'll Never Know’ on The Nashville Marathon or ‘Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It’ on A Hundred Years From Now - Essential Elvis Volume 4, they have always sounded perfect before on these two releases, but here we have the complete unedited Elvis!
The usually relaxed mood of the June session changes in September to something quite different, kind of an angry and overacting atmosphere. Although it doesn't show Elvis at his best, I guess everyone wants to know what this session sounded like.
The idea to separate the “First Takes”, like on some ‘60s Classic Albums, works out in a different way. On the ’60s albums we could find some real diamonds among the first takes, but here they just might have disturbed the high quality of the outtakes on the second CD.
There are some real treasures too amongst them, like the ‘Sylvia’ and ‘If I Were You’ sessions, but most extraordinary of course, the undubbed masters. It’s sad we can't get them all, but since the master takes were cut from the session tapes for further overdubs for a lot of them, they are not available now.
The Bonus Songs - Again we have some surprises. Ernst Jørgensen and his team already gave us some never heard before mixes on the FTD of That's The Way It Is: ‘Patch It Up’ (studio) and ‘I've Lost You’ (studio) were new mixes, drums in the middle, strong and powerful, fitting for the sound of the outtakes, and different from the ‘70s box-set Walk A Mile In My Shoes, that released them in the original ’70s style.
Surprisingly, for the first time, we could also hear ‘Something’ in the old mix, as it was supposed to appear originally on record in the 1970s. I have never heard it that good! For reasons of historical content, the exact same version has been released on Love Letters From Elvis now for the second time, as it was also on FTD’s That’s The Way It Is classic album.
A real surprise buried in the set is the fact that for the first time ever we can now hear a brand new stereo master of ‘Rags To Riches’.
The original master of ‘Rags To Riches’ was Take 4 with a vocal repair on “cuss Me” (changed to “kiss me”), spliced with the line “tell me you’re mine ever more” from Take 3, along with a piano “intro” overdub. For the release of the ‘70s box-set Walk A Mile In My Shoes however, they used just the repaired Take 4, without the line from Take 3. Curiously, it was also missing some backing vocal overdubs and the piano “intro” on that release too.
For the “new” master here they have created a completely new splice. Again, it is mainly Take 4 but they have now used a splice from “...that I’m living for, hold me and kiss me, and tell me you’re mine ever more” from Take 3. I hate to admit it, but it actually sounds better this way!
Taking a closer look at the outtakes …
‘The Sound Of Your Cry’
Takes 1 to 6, including a rehearsal preceding Take 4 are great to listen to, although the two complete takes 3 and 6 were originally released respectively on FTD’s The Nashville Marathon and the Platinum - A Life In Music box-set.
‘Cindy, Cindy’
Take 1 of ‘Cindy, Cindy’ on A Hundred Years From Now - Essential Elvis Volume 4 was edited to take out Elvis' bad language ("Fade this motherfucker..."), but here we get the complete unedited take - something I never thought we’d get officially!
‘I’ll Never Know’
For the first time we get the complete unedited Take 1, along with brief rehearsal beforehand, where this was edited to take out Elvis swearing at the end, on FTD’s The Nashville Marathon. Two brand new takes are also included here, Take 2 is an incomplete take with Elvis breaking down saying “Shit! I just blew it wide open man…”, but Take 3 is complete.
‘Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It’
This is a one-take jam which was overdubbed and then faded by about a minute for original release, but here we get the complete unedited take without overdubs. We got this on A Hundred Years From Now - Essential Elvis Volume 4 but it was edited to take out Elvis' “motherfucker" profanity (around 3:25), whereas it is complete here.
‘It Ain’t No Big Thing (But It’s Growing)’
Takes 1 to 6 of ‘It Ain’t No Big Thing (But It’s Growing)’ are nice if only to hear the progression from the simple guitar intro of Takes 1 and 2 to the piano intro from Take 3 onwards. I really love eavesdropping on the sessions like this!
‘This Is Our Dance’
There are no early takes of ‘This Is Our Dance’ on here, but we do get Takes 6, 7, 9, 10 and the undubbed master Take 11. Take 10 is a short rehearsal that isn’t listed on the cover, and we also get some talking and the count-in from before Take 8 which also isn’t listed.
‘Life’
The long false start of Take 1 is the only new take of ‘Life’ on here as we’ve had Take 2 before on the Today, Tomorrow And Forever box-set, and Take 10 was first released on FTD’s The Nashville Marathon, although it contains dialogue on here that was not included on that album.
‘Heart Of Rome’
We get Take 1 in the “First Takes” section on CD1 and what is listed as “Takes 2 and 3 (undubbed master)” on CD2. What we actually get on CD2 though is Take 2, along with the undubbed Take 3 and then the undubbed “work part” Take 1, which were both used for the composite master of ‘Heart Of Rome’. We don’t actually get the spliced undubbed master. These two individual takes were then overdubbed separately later and then spliced for the released composite master. The two overdubbed sections can be found on the bootleg Unedited Masters - Nashville Revisited on the Venus label.
‘Love Letters’
Take 3 of the remake of ‘Love Letters’ is new here, although it’s an incomplete take, and Take 1 we have had before on The Nashville Marathon, but in a different mix. For some strange reason, we actually get the undubbed master (Take 5) on FTD’s future Classic Album of Elvis Country rather than here on Love Letters From Elvis.
‘If I Were You’
We get takes 1 to 5 of ‘If I Were You’, with Elvis singing part of ‘The Yellow Rose Of Texas’ during Take 3, which was first heard on A Hundred Years From Now - Essential Elvis Volume 4 edited in with Take 5. You can hear Elvis is really struggling with this song as all takes are incomplete up to and including Take 5.
‘Only Believe’
The complete ‘Only Believe’ session including the not listed rehearsal before Take 1, and the rehearsal before the undubbed master Take 4, are included here. Takes 1 and 2 are only false starts and Take 3 is an incomplete take with Elvis breaking down at the end.
’Sylvia’
Takes 1 to 4 of ‘Sylvia’ are included here. Take 1 is a couple of false starts with a brief rehearsal beforehand. Take 2 is a false start not getting beyond “these long lonely evenings…”, and Takes 3 and 4 are both long false starts, with Elvis fooling around with the intro of ‘I Got A Woman’ before Take 4. Take 9, which was recorded after the master Take 8, was first released on FTD’s The Nashville Marathon.
‘Rags To Riches’
Along with the “new” master we get a rehearsal of ‘Rags To Riches’ before the not listed Take 1, which is talking only. Take 2 is a complete take which was first released on FTD’s The Nashville Marathon where it also contained the count-in, not heard here. Take 3 is complete on here, with Elvis’ falsetto ending, but strangely it also contains the later full backup vocal overdubs too. It seems Take 3 must have been considered to be the master originally, and was overdubbed, before it was decided to use Take 4 spliced with the line from Take 3 as the master.
The undubbed Take 3 was released on A Hundred Years From Now - Essential Elvis Volume 4, although the “In And Outtakes” section of the booklet incorrectly lists the same overdubbed take on here as being first released on there.
All in all, another fantastic release for Elvis collectors, with FTD‘s continuing look at Elvis’ June 1970 recording sessions.
Another winner in the Classic Album series.
